Georg Simmel: Essays on Art and Aesthetics

Description

Georg Simmel is one of the most original German thinkers of the twentieth century and is considered a founding architect of the modern discipline of sociology. Ranging over fundamental questions of the relationship of self and society, his influential writings on money, modernity, and the metropolis continue to provoke debate today. Fascinated by the relationship between culture, society, and economic life, Simmel took an interest in myriad phenomena of aesthetics and the arts.  A friend of writers and artists such as Auguste Rodin, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Stefan George, he wrote dozens of pieces engaging with topics such as the work of Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Rodin, Japanese art, naturalism and symbolism, Goethe, “art for art’s sake”, art exhibitions, and the aesthetics of the picture frame. This is the first collection to bring together Simmel’s finest writing on art and aesthetics, and many of the items appear in English in this volume for the first time. The more than forty essays show the protean breadth of Simmel’s reflections, covering landscape painting, portraiture, sculpture, poetry, theater, form, style, and representation. An extensive introduction by Austin Harrington gives an overview of Simmel’s themes and elucidates the significance of his work for the many theorists who would be inspired by his ideas. Something of an outsider to the formal academic world of his day, Simmel wrote creatively with the flair of an essayist. This expansive collection of translations preserves the narrative ease of Simmel’s prose and will be a vital source for readers with an interest in Simmel’s trailblazing ideas in modern European philosophy, sociology, and cultural theory. Contents Introduction 1. Aesthetics Sociological Aesthetics Kant and Modern Aesthetics Art for Art’s Sake Autonomy in the Work of Art 2. Materials, Functions, Institutions On Art Exhibitions Aesthetics of Gravity The Picture Frame: An Aesthetic Study On Aesthetic Quantities The Handle 3 . Style and Representation A Note on Japanese Art On the Third Dimension in Art On Realism in Art On Caricature Individualism in Art Germanic and Classical Romanic Style 4. Landscape Painting Arnold Böcklin’s Landscapes On the Aesthetics of the Alps The Philosophy of Landscape 5 . Portraiture The Aesthetic Significance of the Face Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper Aesthetics of the Portrait: Part I Aesthetics of the Portrait: Part II 6. Theater Gerhart Hauptmann’s The Weavers Theater and the Dramatic Actor: Part I Theater and the Dramatic Actor: Part II Theater and the Dramatic Actor: Part III 7. Sculpture Michelangelo and the Metaphysics of Culture On Constantin Meunier Auguste Rodin: Part I Auguste Rodin: Part II Auguste Rodin: Part III 8. Literature Maurice Maeterlinck’s Wisdom and Destiny Stefan George: Part I Stefan George: Part II Goethe and the Creative Life Individuality and Character in Goethe and Shakespeare Rainer Maria Rilke Acknowledgments Sources and References Index